Take basketball as an example. Among the NBA teams with official accounts are the Knicks, Celtics, Thunder, Bulls and Mavericks. But it’s the personal shots that seem to resonate on Instagram. If Twitter allows professional and college hoops players to share their opinions and interact with their fans, Instagram makes them amateur photographers with an audience most galleries could never imagine.

This week, for the first time in months, James shared three photos to his Instagram audience of 241,000 followers and posted them on his Twitter account with 4.2 million followers. The first photograph: a Polaroid-looking shot of his neon-striped socks and purple Nikes. The second photograph: another pair of sneakers. The most recent photograph: Sunday’s dinner plate of chicken, corn, mac ‘n cheese and bread rolls, which was liked on Instagram almost 9,000 times by Tuesday morning.

On Sunday morning, Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert edited a photo through a filter called “Nashville,” whose borders bring to mind old film strips. Shumpert’s subject was his resplendent outfit and included closeups of his loafers, matching socks and tie and tortoiseshell sunglasses. A few minutes earlier, Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger shared a text message with Michigan State forward Draymond Green, another projected first-round pick in the NBA draft.

Basketball players at times look very sad in their Instagram shots. Perhaps their puppies cheer them up. Washington Wizards guard John Wall recently posted a photo of his “new lil homie,” or dog lying in bed next to a toy, while Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Tristan Thompson’s muse on Instagram is a white furball named Lola.

Then there’s the high-school senior Shabazz Muhammad, the No. 1 player in his class, who already has one-upped the NBA’s finest. Muhammad is expected to choose between Duke, Kentucky and UCLA on Wednesday. So on Monday evening, hours after the Facebook acquisition, he shared an Instagram of his National Letter Intent atop a stack of form letters from his three suitors. The photo had received almost 300 comments by Tuesday morning—most of them from Duke, Kentucky and UCLA fans telling him why he should bring his Instagram account to their campus.

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

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